[bpatil2000]

I am having a similar issue. This morning it was blank and started working in afternoon. I don’t think it has to do with weather outside. I am in Arizona and it is hot throughout the day.

 

[AfishH]

I have a ‘16 EX with a similar issue. It goes in & out periodically, mainly when the temperature/humidity is cool/cold. I wouldn’t care if it didn’t include my mileage and sometimes hinder my yearly inspection. I’ve had to make sure I get it inspected in August so it’s working instead of October when it’s actually due. I’m on disability and a fixed income which makes it much harder for fixing issues. Two more years, she’ll be paid off and it won’t be so bad.

 

[hugh]

You are not likely someone who deals regularly in QC (Quality Control). If this were bad QC then we'd see a lot more of this issue. Just by the fact that this thread is over a year old and has only 26 posts, tells me that this is an isolated incident. Consider not only the hundreds of thousands of HRVs manufactured every year. Just think about the nearly 11,000 people on this forum. If this were bad QC or a prevalent issue, this thread would have had more action. Any time you have mass manufacturing you are likely to encounter an errant defect. It could be the assembly line worker who didn't push quite hard enough that one time because they had an itch and a connector somewhere wasn't quite tight enough. Did it pass QC? Yeah, but in transit, or with use, that connector came loose. It could be just that one random manufacturing defect. But overall, I'd say the QC is pretty good on this specific area of the vehicle. Does it suck for those experiencing it? Yes!!! But, not a huge QC issue. (Stepping off my soapbox now)

This didn't age well! There are a ton of reports of this issue now (11/2023)

 

[hugh]

You are not likely someone who deals regularly in QC (Quality Control). If this were bad QC then we'd see a lot more of this issue. Just by the fact that this thread is over a year old and has only 26 posts, tells me that this is an isolated incident. Consider not only the hundreds of thousands of HRVs manufactured every year. Just think about the nearly 11,000 people on this forum. If this were bad QC or a prevalent issue, this thread would have had more action. Any time you have mass manufacturing you are likely to encounter an errant defect. It could be the assembly line worker who didn't push quite hard enough that one time because they had an itch and a connector somewhere wasn't quite tight enough. Did it pass QC? Yeah, but in transit, or with use, that connector came loose. It could be just that one random manufacturing defect. But overall, I'd say the QC is pretty good on this specific area of the vehicle. Does it suck for those experiencing it? Yes!!! But, not a huge QC issue. (Stepping off my soapbox now)

This didn't age well! There are now a ton of reports of this issue (11/1023).

 

[AfishH]

This didn't age well! There are a ton of reports of this issue now (11/2023)

Good! I hope that means a recall in the near future! It’s getting increasingly hard to talk my mechanic around it at inspection time. 🫣🤫

 

[donaldleepepe6901]

File a complaint ASAP…NHTSA!

 

[AfishH]

Filed a complaint with Honda America AND NHTSA…I suggest that anyone else who has the same problem also file with the NHTSA.

 

[drunktiger17]

Just wanted to say thank you for posting this. My wife bought a used 2016 HRV back in 2019. The gauge has been flickering and when I went to find a fix 3-4 years ago there was lots of complaints but no solution. It finally went out for good about a month ago and she took it to a dealer. $1700. I found this, and it took all of 30 minutes and its fixed. I'm not used to soldering things so tiny so its not my cleanest work but it did the trick.

 

[AfishH]

Just wanted to say thank you for posting this. My wife bought a used 2016 HRV back in 2019. The gauge has been flickering and when I went to find a fix 3-4 years ago there was lots of complaints but no solution. It finally went out for good about a month ago and she took it to a dealer. $1700. I found this, and it took all of 30 minutes and its fixed. I'm not used to soldering things so tiny so its not my cleanest work but it did the trick.

I haven’t worked on a car since they had carburetors…I wonder if it’d be easy enough for me to attempt… 🤔

 

[CalgaryHRV]

Just wanted to say thank you for posting this. My wife bought a used 2016 HRV back in 2019. The gauge has been flickering and when I went to find a fix 3-4 years ago there was lots of complaints but no solution. It finally went out for good about a month ago and she took it to a dealer. $1700. I found this, and it took all of 30 minutes and its fixed. I'm not used to soldering things so tiny so its not my cleanest work but it did the trick.

Where on the gauge cluster circuit board were those pins that you soldered?

 

[Passerby]

Just wanted to say thank you for posting this. My wife bought a used 2016 HRV back in 2019. The gauge has been flickering and when I went to find a fix 3-4 years ago there was lots of complaints but no solution. It finally went out for good about a month ago and she took it to a dealer. $1700. I found this, and it took all of 30 minutes and its fixed. I'm not used to soldering things so tiny so its not my cleanest work but it did the trick.

Nice work! Hey, whatever gets the job done for insanely less than what the dealers want. I also just like that it saves an otherwise perfectly good piece of hardware from the garbage.

I haven’t worked on a car since they had carburetors…I wonder if it’d be easy enough for me to attempt… 🤔

It's honestly a very simple job once someone points you in the right direction (more on that below). The soldering is really a very basic touch up job. With any cheap-o soldering iron off Amazon it's just a quick one second touch on each terminal. It's nice to add your own leaded solder ... but I bet even that is optional. And just be mindful of solder splashes / blobs. Granted soldering is a skill, I know, hopefully there's some dead electronics you can practice on in your house after some YouTube videos somewhere before taking the plunge if this is unfamiliar to you. "Solder practice boards" are a thing though if you google around. Amazon has them... they all kind of looked expensive to me.

Where on the gauge cluster circuit board were those pins that you soldered?

I got all the necessary info Wakefj's post and wrote up my experience about removing the cluster and touching up my own cluster here. Hopefully that's helpful. My cluster hasn't had any issues since! I would have never tried this without the tips from Wakefj's post.

 

[AfishH]

Nice work! Hey, whatever gets the job done for insanely less than what the dealers want. I also just like that it saves an otherwise perfectly good piece of hardware from the garbage.


It's honestly a very simple job once someone points you in the right direction (more on that below). The soldering is really a very basic touch up job. With any cheap-o soldering iron off Amazon it's just a quick one second touch on each terminal. It's nice to add your own leaded solder ... but I bet even that is optional. And just be mindful of solder splashes / blobs. Granted soldering is a skill, I know, hopefully there's some dead electronics you can practice on in your house after some YouTube videos somewhere before taking the plunge if this is unfamiliar to you. "Solder practice boards" are a thing though if you google around. Amazon has them... they all kind of looked expensive to me.


I got all the necessary info Wakefj's post and wrote up my experience about removing the cluster and touching up my own cluster here. Hopefully that's helpful. My cluster hasn't had any issues since! I would have never tried this without the tips from Wakefj's post.

I have solder and a pencil, and I can practice, I’m probably more nervous about removing the cluster from my car and putting it back, praying that I can manage that without screwing it up. But thanks for the pep talk. 😊

 

[Calico]

Im also having this issue on my 2017 hrv wonder if anyone has pinpointed the cause by now? There have also been a few very cold and wet mornings when my car failed to start initially, and I kept trying and eventually it did. Not sure if related or different issue but got my battery tested and it was fine….!

 

[Passerby]

Im also having this issue on my 2017 hrv wonder if anyone has pinpointed the cause by now? There have also been a few very cold and wet mornings when my car failed to start initially, and I kept trying and eventually it did. Not sure if related or different issue but got my battery tested and it was fine….!

If you read through this post you'll see at least one of the causes is some cracks in solder joints in the gauge cluster, which are a fairly easy fix if you're into DIY and ok with some easy soldering. Second hand gauge clusters are a thing, as well, but have their own challenges that I think I talked about in some prior posts here. But, I have to say, the car not starting seems like possibly a different issue.

 

[Calico]

If you read through this post you'll see at least one of the causes is some cracks in solder joints in the gauge cluster, which are a fairly easy fix if you're into DIY and ok with some easy soldering. Second hand gauge clusters are a thing, as well, but have their own challenges that I think I talked about in some prior posts here. But, I have to say, the car not starting seems like possibly a different issue.

Thanks! I didn't realize there were multiple pages of replies on this thread and was only reading the first one haha! I will catch up and review. My car is under a pretty comprehensive warranty... but of course they have an exorbitant fee to diagnose any issue before performing any work which would then may or may not even be covered under the warranty. All the folks I've talked to at my dealership seem less than competent, so I've been extremely reluctant to pay any sort of diagnosis fee for electrical stuff, which I know can be complicated and difficult to pinpoint. Maybe I'll take this info to my personal mechanic and get his 2 cents.

 

[rayalg2004]

Anyone else have a fuel gauge / odometer that goes in and out? When it's been cooler outside mine has been showing jibberish in the past, now it just plain doesn't show up until my car is warmed up. It has been suggested to me that it's a communication problem. Any ideas on how to fix? I'd rather not pay the dealership to troubleshoot and I'm not under warranty any longer.

If any one is having an issue with their instrument cluster glitching/flickering, please email acs@ahm.honda.com to let the Honda Corporation know we are not the only ones dealing with this issue.
I feel the more people that let Honda know, maybe there will be a recall and we won't have to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a manufacturing error.

 

[Wakefj]

Update: It's been nearly 2 years since I resoldered the connector pins on the instrument cluster; the dash has been 100%. -No flickers, no guessing the fuel quantity, etc. A little patience, some common hand tools and a soldering iron and electronic solder will fix this (find my post from Nov. 1, 2022 for step-by-step details). It's a shame that Honda won't issue a recall for this issue.

 

[kostby]

My out-of-warranty 2016 HR-V EX AWD (purchased Honda Certified used in 2018 with about 30,000 miles, now about 51,000 miles) began experiencing the blank or flashing right odometer/fuel/temp display a few weeks ago when the weather turned cooler. An outside air temperature of 65 degrees or less caused the display to remain blank or flash occasionally until the temperature reached 70 or above. I tried pressing the Trip reset button, and that would restore the display as long as I was pressing it, but of course, pushing it too many times also reset my trip counter.

So today, I watched a couple of YT videos, re-read this thread, and similar ones here and in the Fit forum I follow.
One YT video mentioned disconnecting the car battery, but because the cluster has just a single harness that plugs in to the dash, and I wasn't using metal tools, messing with the airbag, or any other electrical components, that seemed excessive, so I left the battery connected.

I extended the steering wheel fully toward me and fully down, and turned the steering wheel about 30-degrees to the left, to facilitate cluster removal. I pulled the trim toward me to release the trim clips (top first), removed the three screws securing the cluster, and the fourth one securing the extended top clip of the cluster, then removed the cluster from the car, unclipping the gray clip from the cluster by pushing down on the top release while pulling the connector away from the cluster. Then I removed the screws securing the white back panel to the cluster. Removing the white panel gives ready access to the vertical row of soldered pins on the left side as you face the rear cluster circuit board. Then I re-heated each of the problematic pins using a low-wattage electric soldering iron with a very thin pointed tip. I didn't try adding more solder the first time. I tested the cluster by re-plugging it before I reinstalled the white plastic back.

It worked as expected, but, likely because I had inadvertntly attempted to start the car without my foot on the brake the first time, the Check Engine indicator was also illuminated. The ambient temperature was about 70 while I was testing it.
To be certain that my first attempt wasn't a faulty soldering job, I reheated each pin and added a tiny bit of fresh solder this time. On the second test, the Check Engine indicator did not iluminate.

I reinstalled the white back panel on the cluster, installed the screws, reinstalled the cluster itself, secured it with the screws, and reinstalled the trim, with the bottom two 'legs' placed behind the existing trim, and carefully fished the dash light and reset stalk into position before fully snapping the top of the trim back in place.

I'll do a future update in this thread only if my repair fails to work in cooler air temperatures or other issues are encountered.

 

[phinegan]

I took my 2020 HR-V to the dealer after the fuel gauge started going wonky after having the fuel pump recall done.
The dealer just gave me a call and stated that the instrument/gauge panel is going to be replaced FREE OF CHARGE as it is considered an emissions warranty component.
I haven't heard of anyone else getting the gauges replaced under an emissions warranty...I hope I don't get a different story when I pick the car tomorrow.

 

[AfishH]

I took my 2020 HR-V to the dealer after the fuel gauge started going wonky after having the fuel pump recall done.
The dealer just gave me a call and stated that the instrument/gauge panel is going to be replaced FREE OF CHARGE as it is considered an emissions warranty component.
I haven't heard of anyone else getting the gauges replaced under an emissions warranty...I hope I don't get a different story when I pick the car tomorrow.

Lucky dog!!